Change in D.C. stirs state drug policy debate

King County Prosecutor won't oppose pot decriminalization effort

Published 10:00 pm, Thursday, March 26, 2009

As Seattle's chief of police, Gil Kerlikowske was no drug warrior.

Kerlikowske abided by city residents when they voted to make marijuana crimes the lowest priority for his department. He supported moves by city and county courts to direct drug offenders to treatment, rather than to prison.

Now, as Kerlikowske prepares to become the nation's top drug cop, some supporters of drug policy reform now look toward his appointment and other events and find reason for optimism. Many reformers have been cautiously hopeful about President Obama's choice of the former chief as head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the "drug czar" post that has historically held a hard line.

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Elsewhere, too, change appears to be on the way.

Gov. Chris Gregoire's former attorney Jenny Durkan -- a defense lawyer who has previously advocated for drug defendants -- appears poised to become U.S. attorney in Seattle, which would make her the top federal prosecutor in Western Washington.

In Olympia earlier this year, a key Senate committee approved for the first time legislation that would have made possession of small quantities of marijuana a criminal infraction similar to a speeding ticket.

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More broadly, though, advocates for reform say they've seen a shift in the public perception of the effectiveness of the drug war and the palatability of significant change in the way law enforcement approaches drugs.

King County has already seen a decrease in the number of felony drug prosecutions filed, said Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, a Republican elected in 2007 after 22 years with the office.

While drug prosecutions once represented 30 to 35 percent of the Prosecutor's Office's annual caseload, they now account for about 13 percent, Satterberg said. Due in part to sentencing reforms, the proportion of drug offenders in Washington prisons has also fallen by nearly half in the past five years.

Speaking earlier this week, Satterberg noted that, until 1989, Seattle policed marijuana possession in a manner similar to that considered by the Legislature earlier this year. Then, residents caught with less than 40 grams (about 1.5 ounces) of pot were cited on the spot but not subject to arrest or search.

"I don't think we were any less civilized a society because of that," Satterberg said. "And if that's the way the Legislature wants to go, I wouldn't have an issue."

Edmonds travel writer and drug reform advocate Rick Steves said he supports such a change and hopes the country can do even more.

Steves, author of the popular "Europe through the backdoor" travel guides and host of a related public television series, said he believes a confluence of events may push the drug policy debate forward.

Shrinking state budgets call into question the usefulness of the money spent to incarcerate drug offenders, Steves said. At the same time, a gang war in Mexico fueled almost entirely by drug sales to the U.S. is expanding, causing concern among those in law enforcement who already see signs that the violence is spreading north of the border.

And, of course, there's the change in administration.

Under President Bush, federal authorities actively opposed medical marijuana distribution in states, such as Washington, where the residents had approved its sale. While it remains to be seen whether the Obama Justice Department will honor the pledge, Attorney General Eric Holder has previously said his department will not interfere with legal medical marijuana providers. That, Steves said, could indicate that the states will be able to set their own drug laws without fear of federal recrimination.

Steves said he believes Americans have been afraid to openly debate drug policy for decades. That, he said, may be changing.

"There's an appetite for our society to stop embracing lies," Steves said. "We're a free society. We're a well-educated society. We should be able to discuss such a law that's causing more harm than good."

Whatever the debate elsewhere, federal authorities continue to pursue drug smugglers on Washington's northern border and growers throughout the state.

Sullivan asserted that, in concert with educational and treatment efforts aimed at reducing demand for drugs in the United States, law enforcement can make smuggling so costly for marijuana producers that they no longer grow the drug. The Bush appointee also defended the exceptionally long sentences mandated by federal law, which sets the minimum sentence for most drug distribution offenses at a 10-year prison term.

"It makes me feel good when (offenders) go away for 50 years or 40 years or 20 years," Sullivan said, before urging the Canadian government to increase penalties there.

"From a personal standpoint," he added, "I think it would be helpful to us if the laws in Canada were a little tougher."

Seattle lawyer Alison Holcomb, director of drug policy for the Washington chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, disputed the assertion made by Sullivan and others that the current drug control efforts are reducing drug use in the county.

Drug potency, prices and use rates have not seen significant change since President Nixon declared a "war on drugs" three decades ago, Holcomb said. Since then, she said, citizens have elected three presidents who had admitted to smoking marijuana.

"We've known for over 40 years that using criminal sanctions as the primary tool for dealing with a public health issue is ineffective, and expensive," Holcomb said. "I'm not anticipating dramatic changes in federal policy in the next year or two, but what I've hoped for is an open conversation about alternatives to relying on the militarization, if you will, of federal drug enforcement strategies."

During the legislative session, Holcomb supported the Senate bill that would have decriminalized marijuana possession for personal use. The bill, sponsored by four Seattle Democrats, passed the Judiciary Committee with bipartisan support but failed to come up for a vote in the Senate.

Linda Thompson, one of the group's founders, said she believes a greater emphasis should be put on treatment available. But, she said, she believes decriminalization would both make the marijuana more accessible to children and undermine societal values.

"We're trying to make young people make the choice to be healthy and strong," she said. "The decriminalization of marijuana would send the message to our use that marijuana is not a dangerous drug."

Thompson argued that marijuana serves as a "gateway" to harder drugs, a claim rejected by Seattle reform advocate Vivian McPeak.

McPeak, one of the founders of Seattle Hempfest, said marijuana helped him beat a cocaine addiction and that he continues to use the drug medicinally to manage chronic pain.

Like some other reform advocates, McPeak argues that a total legalization of currently illicit drugs would allow the government to regulate the trade and better address addiction.

"We're continuously trying to deal with a public health issue through the criminal justice system," McPeak said. "Until we realize that it's a public health issue, we're going to be beating our heads against the wall."

Satterberg said that, in his view, recent efforts to push accused drug offenders into treatment have proved fruitful. In the long term, he said, initiatives like King County's drug court save tax dollars while helping addicts regain their footing. Currently, though, treatment programs around the state are facing cuts due to shortfalls in tax revenue.

"I still see drug addiction as a tragedy," the prosecutor said. "The most important thing for us to do is maintain the drug treatment resources and enhance those, so we can use an arrest … as an opportunity for intervention."

Silent on the issue, at least for now, are Kerlikowske and Durkan. Reached for comment, Kerlikowske declined pending his confirmation by Congress; Durkan did not return repeated calls to her Seattle office.

Steves said he's remains hopeful that the silence in the halls of power on the issue will be broken in the days to come.

"The irony is that nobody can talk about this in our society without fear of losing their jobs," he said. "That's no way to live in a free society."

A television program on drug policy reform Steves produced with the ACLU is available here. Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper also writes on the issue for the SeattlePI.com as part of the Seattle Views forum.